The Marana Police Officers Association wants to be heard, and it
has a plan for getting town officials to lend an ear.

Last month, the association ran a newspaper ad in The Explorer
requesting one-page letters from people seeking election or
re-election to the Marana Town Council.

After it interviews responders, the association will decide
which candidates to support.

While candidate endorsements are nothing new, Mayor Ed Honea
seemed surprised that the association would start the process so
early. Elections will be held in March 2009.

During the last election, various groups, including the Northern
Pima County Chamber and the Tucson Board of Realtors, invited
candidates to interview for endorsements, Honea said.

But that was after people had declared their candidacies.

“I find it extremely unusual that they would advertise,” he
said. “They’re completely within their rights, but it’s unusual
that they worked it from that perspective.”

Honea said he doesn’t think dissatisfaction with the town
council is the impetus.

The council has a good relationship with the town’s police
department, he said.

People are happy with the new chief, Honea said, and town
officials have ridden with officers on duty.

Even Sgt. Art Ross, president of the Marana police association,
said the ad represents nothing extraordinary, just a natural next
step for the young organization in “promoting our association and
the hopes and aspirations of our members.”

But a look back at a decade of Marana Police Department history
suggests that law enforcement might have an incentive to win a
future town council member’s ears.

Councilwoman Roxanne Ziegler was on the council a decade ago,
when police department employees claimed that the police chief at
the time, David Smith, managed employees in a way that resulted in
plummeting morale, an exodus of veteran officers and supervisors
and a rash of police misconduct.

Ziegler said that earlier this year former Assistant Police
Chief Barbara Harris retired after employees faulted her for not
consistently following the chain of command and labeled her as a
key factor for the department’s low morale.

Harris is in the midst of an appeal to win her job back.

Both times, Ziegler said, most of the town council members were
slow in offering the police department support.

“Action speaks louder than words, and when it came to action,
most of them did nothing for the police department,” she said.

Ziegler, who sided with the disgruntled police officers both
times, said times have been hard for the police, and they’re just
looking for a candidate who will listen to them.

She added that some might suspect the department of plotting to
pick candidates whom they can brainwash to do their bidding.

“I guess people are thinking there is some diabolical reason to
put that ad there,” she said. “It’s really not diabolical. They had
trouble in the past, and they’re just asking for candidates to come
talk to them.”

Ross agreed that the officers sometimes feel ignored.

“The town is big on customer service,” he said. “We feel like at
times in the history of our association, we haven’t been extended
the same courtesies that the town would extend to the average
citizen.”

But mainly, he said, the association’s ad — which last week had
garnered one response that Ross knew about — was just the next step
in its organizational evolution.

Last year, Ross said, the association was finally recognized as
the sole bargaining unit for officers.

The next phase is to involve itself more in politics.

“We’re at a good spot with a new town manager and a new chief of
police,” he said. “Now’s the time we could really make some strides
forward. I think we have the right people in place. The only new
key to that would be the town council. With a strong working
relationship with the council members, I think we could really make
some strides as to being a modern professional agency.”